Review: Thee Heavenly Music Association – Shaping the Invisible

Review: Thee Heavenly Music Association – Shaping the Invisible
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Thee Heavenly Music Association Shaping the Invisible Rehash Records   Caught somewhere between Curve and Garbage (yes I know that’s a slim alley) with an over-apparent love for My Bloody Valentine, the combination of Helen Storer and Dave Hillis produce a nice wall of distorted pop that is good enough to make up for the

Review: Great Lakes Myth Society – Self-Titled

Review: Great Lakes Myth Society – Self-Titled
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Great Lakes Myth Society Self-Titled Stop, Pop & Roll   You can hear a young Paul Simon here and there in the opening of “Red Jacket Miners” before it sways into “The Salt Trucks,” but that’s no sort of indication of what is to come. When the banjo rolls in on “Across the Bridge” you

Review: Random Hymns EP – GSL

Review: Random Hymns EP – GSL
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Random Hymns EP GSL   This one might scramble your brains a bit in the traditional Gold Standard way. Punk in attitude, freeform in structure, drenched in organs thrust along by the occasional drum bit stolen from The Cure’s Pornography. Random Hymns drops you down the rabbit hole and dares you to climb out. It

Review: Mad E.P. – Eating Movies

Review: Mad E.P. – Eating Movies
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Mad E.P. Eating Movies Ad Noiseam Street: Out Now   When I am 6 was the first work of art by Matthew Peters of Mad E.P. and now he gives us the follow-up full-length, Eating Movies. Mad E.P. is completely uninhibited to experiment with hip-hop, piano keys, answering machine messages, flutes, cellos, street sounds, fist

Review: Brian Evanson with Xingu Hill & Tamarin – Altmann’s Tongue

Review: Brian Evanson with Xingu Hill & Tamarin – Altmann’s...
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Brian Evanson with Xingu Hill & Tamarin Altmann’s Tongue Ant Zen Street: Out Now   The spoken word project with Xingu Hill, Tamarin and author Brian Evanson has been in the works for quite some time now. When I first met the musicians in 2002, John Sellekaers of Xingu Hill had flown from Belgium to

Review: S. Sturgis – In a Haze

Review: S. Sturgis – In a Haze
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S. Sturgis In a Haze Positron Records Street: Out Now   The artist’s name alone tells you this album is excellent. In eight years, Scott Sturgis has already shown that he can do gritty industrial with Pain Station, pounding rhythm noise with Converter and experimental ambiance with Notime. After 13 releases of his other projects,

Review: :wumpscut: – Evoke

Review: :wumpscut: – Evoke
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:wumpscut: Evoke Metropolis Street: 04.12   Because my expectations were pretty low due to the preview, the Blondi single, I’ll admit that I’m not disappointed with this release. The album starts off with a crackwhore waltz featuring the wretched female vocals that are like fingernails on a chalkboard on “Maiden.” Vocoder distortion helps her at

Review: VNV Nation – Matter+Form

Review: VNV Nation – Matter+Form
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VNV Nation Matter+Form Metropolis Street: 04.12   VNV Nation fans have waited two years for Matter + Form and will delight in the latest efforts of Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson. Eleven tracks of Epic songs that are part of the future-pop founder’s repertoire reinvent the genre that blurs gothic, industrial and techno sounds. “Intro”

Review: Phazm – Hate at First Seed

Review: Phazm – Hate at First Seed
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Phazm Hate at First Seed Osmose Productions   Phazm are a French band that sound more like Amebix than any of their death metal contemporaries. This came across during the first listen as kind of plain, as there weren’t any other elements added to their brand of brutal metal, but there is enough going on

Review: Origin – Echoes of Decimation

Review: Origin – Echoes of Decimation
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Origin Echoes of Decimation Relapse Records   Clocking in with nine tracks (no intros!) in just under half an hour, you might suspect that Origin’s newest release in well over five years is fast. Oh, yes—it’s fast, alright. With members in the past having ties to Nile, Hate Eternal and other bands, you know what